She Lost Diamond In Beltzville Lake In A Gem Of A Rescue, Divers Searched And Found It

August 07, 1985|by JENNIFER RITENOUR, The Morning Call

There is one thing harder than a diamond - trying to find one in 6 feet of water.

When Bonita Makovsky of Coplay R.2, near Laurys Station, lost the diamond from her engagement ring in the Beltzville Lake on Sunday, she realized the chances of recovering the stone were slim.

Monday evening, after a 22-minute search, Whitehall Emergency Squad diver John Rackus emerged from the lake with the diamond in his hand, and the emergency squad members promptly replaced a diamond as one girl's best friend.

"The fact that they found it is totally amazing," said Bob Tomesek of the squad. "I couldn't even give it odds, because I wouldn't know how to say the number. It's bigger than the budget deficit."

Makovsky lost the diamond in a minor boating accident Sunday afternoon.

While coming in to dock at the Pine Run Boat Launch, she put out her hand to stop the boat as it glided in, but the strength of the current caused the boat to push her hand against the dock.

The impact bruised her hand, and changed the shape of her engagement ring, which was still on her finger, from circular to oval. The prongs holding the diamond bent back, and the diamond fell into the lake.

"I was lucky it didn't cut my finger off," Makovsky said. "I usually don't wear my rings when I'm swimming or water skiing, but I knew I wasn't going to be doing either on Sunday.

"I was numb from the loss," she said. "But a park ranger, Joe Devlin, suggested that I find a diving squad to recover it.

"I knew that the odds of finding it were high, but I figured that if I didn't give it at least one shot, the odds were zero, so I called the Whitehall Emergency Squad."

The squad complied even though the members had never performed a water recovery operation for something so small. However, Makovsky was able to pinpoint where the diamond entered the water.

Three divers were dispatched to search for the diamond, armed only with scuba gear and their eyes. The other two divers, Dave Carl and Shirley Reeve, were supposed to join Rackus in the water later, but didn't need to, Tomesek said.

Rackus had to stay off the bottom of the lake while searching a small area at a time. The lake bottom consists primarily of silt and sediment that are easily disrupted.

"I thought that they'd pass over it many times without finding it," Tomesek said. "I was really surprised."

He added that in addition to the diamond, which was found in a grassy area of the lake bottom, Rackus found a screw driver, a pair of glasses and some change.

"We had planned to use wet vacs if we couldn't find it by simply looking," Tomesek said. "They suck up and sift through the dirt. I don't know if it would have worked or not, and now we may never know. We didn't need them."

"I was more shocked when they found it than I was when I lost it," Makovsky said. "Dave Carl had told us it would take a while, and suggested that we come back in an hour. When we returned, a stranger who had gotten caught up in the action told me they had found it.

"Everyone was so cooperative," Mrs. Makovsky said. "I could have easily been brushed off. They could have told me it was impossible, but no one did. They took the time and trouble to try to help me. . . . and it paid off."

"I realized myself that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. With all the boat traffic on a Sunday, it could have easily sunk quite a bit. And there were at least a dozen fish right there that night," she said. "I kept wondering which one had eaten it."

She said that even if the diamond had not been found, she "would still take that one chance."

The squad, pleased with its success, would probably do it again as well. "If someone were to ask again, depending on the information given and knowing we found this one, we'd probably try again," Tomesek said.

Makovsky is planning to take the stone and setting to the jewelers as soon as possible. "There is no damage to the diamond itself," she said, "but the setting will have to be straightened out and put back in a circular shape."